There was time when it was easy to miss out. But the third-party market seems to be changing, as far as companies rereleasing things. Pretty much everything that's been released these days has also been or will be rereleased. Even FP's gone back and rereleased older things like City Commander and the Bruticus limbs.

The problem for me is the price shenanigans that companies like iGear are indulging in.

gingy, you know I almost *never* go off this board for TF news, damnit! So...I just went to iGear's website...and threw up on myself. How the fuck do you navigate that piece of shit? I saw NO mention of their minibots. WTF. Anyway, so what kind of bullshit are they engaging in??

As for missing out the first time around, I guess you're right. First-adopters are kinda screwed, huh? That's not a good thing to have happen...because more and more people are gonna avoid throwing down when a design first comes out (in the hopes that a better, cheaper version will eventually become available). And that'll lead to a harder time making revenue goals and all that. Seems like these 3rd partyers are potentially fucking themselves...

QuoteSanjeev
gingy, you know I almost *never* go off this board for TF news, damnit! So...I just went to iGear's website...and threw up on myself. How the fuck do you navigate that piece of shit? I saw NO mention of their minibots. WTF. Anyway, so what kind of bullshit are they engaging in??

Hey, 'Jeev. I figured you already knew where the preorders were given that you've been waiting for Gears. Should have just emailed you when I found out.

You basically have to buy a pair (Gears + Outback, or Beachbum + Swerve), and it's $75.98 for the pair. So I guess if you buy direct from iGear, it's not so bad when you break down the price, except you're stuck with a minibot you're not going to want (Outback's colors and chest design are wrong). Then again, you can just ebay the other minibot.

Unfortunately, I don't order from iGear because it's slow, the service is atrocious (in case of QC mishaps), and they don't package their items well at all, so boxes get jacked up.

BBTS has run up the prices as usual, but the plus is that you get to order the 'bots individually (though BBTS is also running up the prices on the individual Gears and Beachbum). I'm not getting Beachbum, even though I'm mildly interested, because there's a really good chance that iGear will release a "correct-colors" vesion down the line.

QuoteSanjeevAs for missing out the first time around, I guess you're right. First-adopters are kinda screwed, huh? That's not a good thing to have happen...because more and more people are gonna avoid throwing down when a design first comes out (in the hopes that a better, cheaper version will eventually become available). And that'll lead to a harder time making revenue goals and all that. Seems like these 3rd partyers are potentially fucking themselves...

Yeah, it's going to be a tricky thing for them. Third-partiers need early adopters to make their money back, but they also want to profit off the molds. On the fan side, though, there are always going to be suckers who have to be the first to get something and brag about it. As far I'm concerned, they're welcome to get screwed in service to the rest of us.

Well, I'll be snookered. This most emphatically is NOT this. I guess I fail at internets today.

Anyway, I was fine with the idea of getting the pair an reBaying Outback...but given what you said about iGear's b2c service, I say fuck it. I don't trust the QC, so I'ma place my order with BBTS. Plus I'm a lazy bastard: the extra $20 or so is worth it for the single Gears, and NOT to have to reBay Outback.

Thanks for the 411.

Quotegingaio
On the fan side, though, there are always going to be suckers who have to be the first to get something and brag about it. As far I'm concerned, they're welcome to get screwed in service to the rest of us.

I'll probably get all four, these are nice enough figures to overlook some details plus characters like Beachcomber were never my favorite so the off colors don't bother mean. skipped out on Huffer and Seaspray cuz they were to small and Cosmo just didn't feel right, I'll wait till someone comes out with one that looks like a upside down green bucket with a smaller red bucket for a head and some arms.

Also for those that own the iGear minibots and Ratchet or Ironhide are the weapons interchangeable? I should be getting my Ratchet and Ironhide this week and I was wondering if I could display my Brawn with any of the guns that comes with those two.

I actually held in my hand the ROTF Target Exclusive Bruticus for $24.99 and went. nahh. and put it down now they are being (what I suspect are bootleg offerings) for the low, low, low price of $130.00 Thank you FP for driving the price up and creating two robots that I want to have a nice Bruticus! I did get the double pack skywarp and Ultra Magnus for $19.99 back in the day and I'm glad I did.

I don't know what a MP Inferno version would look like but I really like the Generations voyager class one with the exception of the water gun (which has an after market fix.) but the robot looks really nice to me.

QuoteMarvin Lee
I actually held in my hand the ROTF Target Exclusive Bruticus for $24.99 and went. nahh. and put it down now they are being (what I suspect are bootleg offerings) for the low, low, low price of $130.00 Thank you FP for driving the price up and creating two robots that I want to have a nice Bruticus! I did get the double pack skywarp and Ultra Magnus for $19.99 back in the day and I'm glad I did.

This was a unique situation because no one wanted the HasTak Bruticus until FP made its upgrade kits. Same goes of for the Classics UM. These are cases in which toys literally get transformed into things that are more appealing/Showy/etc. If FP hadn't released the upgrade kits, the HasTak Bruticus wouldn't be worth anything these days. No one could have predicted that FP would have done what it did.

So, it's not really an issue of toys getting multiple runs. (The fact that FP is rereleasing its Munitioner/Explorer set is more to the point.)

I understand about multiple runs but I think the issue is "Getting it when the getting is good". What made it "Good" could be a number of reasons. I never heard of or wanted a TF Heavy tread but now that I've seen the iron army set. I want one just to make that cool looking robot.

Speaking of second run, I received my FP Steel Core today. This was from the second wave of these that were made available about a month and a half ago at Fansprojectcore. Ben's review is spot on (http://www.collectiondx.com/toy_review/warbots_steel_core), so I won't go into the details, but I can say that I love this guy. IMO it's FP's finest toy release thus far. If they eventually re-release this guy, he's worth every penny. Of their figures so far, this is the one that feels the most like an actual toy. The plastic is really more like something you'd see in a mass-release figure you'd find at a retail outlet. I suspect we'll see a re-release in different colors at some point. There's supposed to be some sort of trailer add-on that will be released in the future as well.

Quotegingaio
When I was a kid, I had maybe about 8-9 small- to medium-sized TFs. So not an impressive collection, and two of them were Brawn and Windcharger. I think I wanted any Minibot other than these two, but these were the two I had. I remember enjoying the TF episode in which Brawn and Windcharger go on a mission with Skyfire, primarily because it featured my two lame-ass minibots, the toy incarnations of which looked nothing like their show counterparts.

Anyway, iGear's been doing with its minibots what ACCORDING TO GINGAIO EVERY SINGLE COMPANY should be doing with modern updates--maintain fidelity to an original design while making the character look cool and making the toy sturdy and user friendly.

I kind of wish Brawn was minibot-sized, but it does scale nicely with the United Windcharger, and seeing my two childhood minibots updated together is pretty cool, even if Windcharger could be more Showy.

Brawn is really nicely done. I never thought that the character was particularly appealing, aesthetically or otherwise, and iGear managed to make a toy that is both fun to look at and play with. Transformation is very simple and straightforward. Windcharger, on the other hand, requires quite of bit of plastic massaging to get the pieces into place for alt mode.

Given my tastes, but also from a pure toy perspective, this third-partier has churned out a much more satisfying product than HasTak.

Minor QC quibbles
1) Due to either misshapen ball joints or shallow housings, when I lifted the shoulders of one of Brawn’s arms, the arm would pop out. A bit of floor polish seemed to fix it up. Other people have mentioned the same problem, along with floppy neck balls and looseness with some of the other ball joints....most of my joints were medium-tight, but I went over everything with floor polish and now everything should be very tight. The balls/housings are such that when you twist them a certain way, they get loose, but in most other positions, they’re fine…manufacturing tolerances could be better.

2) The lower legs are assembled incorrectly from the factory (from what I can tell, everyone has had this problem), so you have to pop them off and switch them. Not a big deal, though, and about 5 seconds to fix.

3) The figure has a tendency to tip backwards--heavy back/jeeb kibble + improperly designed/misplaced heel spurs (the exhausts on the jeep) mean that this thing likes to topple.

So not as perfectly executed as Rager, though Rager didn't give me MORE HEAD either. Nor a shotgun of doom.

What makes the head gimmick so cool is that unlike the modernist tendency to just parts-swap more accurate-looking pieces (SOCs and most high-end toys), this alt-look is built in as a gimmick of the toy. It's such an old-schooled philosophy and such a lost art these days.

Note to Mr. Crush: Yes, I have the green Giant now, sealed in its contraceptive plastic wrap from BBTS. Soon, I will open it.

Just got my not-Brawn (he was delayed because I ordered him with the not-deluxe-Insecticons which I have yet to open). Are you sure the legs were switched? It looks in the picture like you didn't rotate his lower body around to hide the screw, which basically switches the legs anyway. Either that or they corrected it later.

I also got the smaller not-perceptor in Japanese colors, so I'm re-rereading this thread, and now I'm tempted by Uranus, the minibot two packs, and the Warbot... ugh, make it stop!

On the other hand, I finally got a Transformers Prime Rumble... the figure is nice enough, but the paint apps are terribly lacking. Along with the slight-remolds for beastformers, I might be done with that line, which frees up some TF money, I guess.

Couple big releases in the 3rd party arena, Sixshot and Shockwave. Plus color prototype of FOC Omega Supreme. I'll probably only get Shockwave since that's the most G1 looking although Sixshot does look good if a little over detailed, but I'm pretty sure this is Fan Toys first release since their version of a MP Soundwave mysteriously got canceled ... cough, cough...but this Shockwave seems to be a go which most likelt means there won't be a official MP version for awhile.

I just wonder if the proliferation of these pretty good third party toys will eventually lead to lower prices from the bunch of them. It seems like we're beginning to see sort of a standard set of prices at the moment, with 70 bucks being the general rate for a deluxe sized figure and somewhere around 100 bucks for a voyager. But, there's more and more of these all the time, and there's no way the fandom can keep buying figures at the prices they want for them. It used to be there were only a few of these companies, but now we've got quite a few putting out quite a few toys. I just don't see the market being there for this many at this kind of pricing. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part.

Finally got Warbots Assaulter. I wasn't quite as impressed with him as I thought I would be, partly because the diecast makes him a bit of a pain to play with. Plus the pegs that hold together his battleship mode make me really worry since they're really really tight.

I think the main reason I haven't played with him as much, though, is because I got him in at the same time as iGear Medical and Weapon Specialists. I only opened Medical Specialist, but man I'm impressed. I still have no idea why there are clearly joints to hide the hip kibble, but not enough clearance to safely fold them away, but other than that and the yamato-esque leg kibble solution, he's a great size and looks decent in both modes.

I think I've become semi-immune to the 3rd party prices at this point, which is scary. When I first saw these iGear guys I thought it was a major rip-off, and now I feel like it was a good deal, and it's mainly because the other stuff coming out is priced so high. Green Giant was the tipping point. Heck, I even eschewed the advice here and got not-Cosmos, and besides having to tighten his body up (is his head really held up by just friction? That's not going to last), I kinda like him.

Of course, what's really scary is that spending so much on 3rd party crap has made Hot Toys stuff seem more reasonably priced, and I've dipped my toe back into 1/6. Ugh.

Minor QC quibbles
2) The lower legs are assembled incorrectly from the factory (from what I can tell, everyone has had this problem), so you have to pop them off and switch them. Not a big deal, though, and about 5 seconds to fix.

Just got my not-Brawn (he was delayed because I ordered him with the not-deluxe-Insecticons which I have yet to open). Are you sure the legs were switched? It looks in the picture like you didn't rotate his lower body around to hide the screw, which basically switches the legs anyway. Either that or they corrected it later.

The legs were misassembled at the factory, and I popped them back into the correct positions, but I forgot to turn the waist in some of my pics, which were taken after my fix. The problem was pretty widespread, from what I've read at the TF boards.

Just got BBTS to ship my MP Soundwave, but I'm honestly not that excited about it. Maybe it's because I had the Music Label Soundwave not too long ago, and that was pretty good already.

Anyway, I'm way more excited about this, which should be hitting our fine shores in Feb:

Pics taken by "Young Padawan" and posted on the TF board. Should have some ratcheting joints, and some diecast on the outer part of the lower legs. The muzzle in gun mode flips inside out and becomes the backpack in robot mode. Genius!

Actually, I think this made G1 Shockwave look positively good...nearly 30 years ago:

Cover art on the left is still ridiculous (i.e., "fantabulous") after all this time.

Shockwave's a weird design, but his run in the Marvel comics, especially when he beat the crap out of the Dinobots singlehandedly, changed my tune. The original toy was one of the G1 TFs that was already really good. This looks like a worthy update, and according to the guy on the TF board, is heavy and solid.

Yeah, dude at Captured Prey has set a deadline to order of Jan. 31 (it's supposed to arrive by the middle of next month...review samples are already en route), so if you're interested, you should get your order in now. You could try it later, but the first wave, at least, might sell out. It's not at Robot-Kingdom, BBTS, or TF Source.

Quotefujishig
Thanks. Never ordered from Captured Prey before but I've been waiting for an opportunity to get Hegemon anyway.

I bit the bullet and ordered a Hegemon from them. Turns out they're a shop in Louisville KY, that's like an hour drive from me, the shipping was awesomely cheap. I kinda know one of the guys who's affiliated with them, but I'll let you know how my experience with turn out.